I first read Chad Fowler's gem, My Job Went to India: 52 Ways to Save Your Job around this time last summer. Let me tell you, it was an awesome book (at least, it seriously changed the way I look at my career, and the way I've been managing it since then). It was a greatly inspiring book.

The reason I bring this up today is because despite the fact it was released a couple of years ago, its been making rounds through a couple of blogs lately. On top of that, I've wanted to write about it since reading it, and now seems like the perfect time.

First, Pragmatic Dave asked for help in titling one of The Pragmatic Programmers' new books on accessibility. Why do they need help? He brought up Chad's book, and its unfortunate title. About it, he says,

Chad Fowler's first book with us is really, really good: a guide to managing and developing your career as a programmer. It was a joy to edit, and everyone who's read it loves it. But when it came time to give it a title, we were stumped. In the end, we decided to go for something a little jokey with some shock value...
The title didn't work. We sold a decent number of copies (just under 10,000), but we *should* have sold 3, 4, or 5 times that. It's a very, very good book. But I blew it for Chad by going with the wrong title.

Then Jay Fields seconded the motion, saying "I actually think reading this book is as important for your career as reading The Pragmatic Programmer is for your skills." I think so too. So important, in fact, I'm going to try to go through and do one chapter a week for the next 52 weeks. Of course, things I've already done from the book I probably won't go back and do again (but I may write about how I accomplished them), or things that require outside help where no one will help me ... but I imagine most of them will be doable.

So here's to the next year!

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